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Day 1 - Arrival at Addis Ababa

Posted by Sadie - Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Arrived at Addis Ababa airport early in the morning, 7am Ethiopian time after an 8 hour flight. Before we left we wanted to exchange our cash so queued for ages at the bank desk. About an hour later, we passed through security to collect our bags (which had been taken off the conveyer belt we were so long!) and had to pass out of the airport through another bag scanner…where we hit our first problem! Mark was stopped and asked for a permit for the camera which we didn’t have, as we’d been informed it wasn’t necessary. Reluctantly we had to leave the camera at the airport, and ask our hosts at WaterAid Ethiopia to sort out a permit in the meantime.

MAD car journey later and we reached the hotel…our first look at Ethiopia. We were all in a bit of a daze after the flight so gratefully fell into bed for a couple of hours before starting our meetings.

Serena and Tekele from WaterAid Ethiopia (WAE) took us to lunch before we met the team. Found out that there are lots of Italian restaurants, influenced by the occupation of Mussolini’s Italy in World War 2. Mark’s permit was sorted and so he returned to the airport to collect his camera. WAE presented their specific mission within WaterAid’s overall goal and described the focus on community led projects and why it’s so vital to let the community own the projects in order for them to be sustainable. They also talked about how they use local customs such as the coffee ceremony as a forum for discussion about hygiene and sanitation. They explained the different technologies that we’d see – biogas, gravity flow systems, eco san latrines etc. I’m looking forward to actually seeing some of these at the projects as I can’t really envisage how they will work in practise.

On the walk back to the hotel, it really hit home to me how different this is to anywhere I’ve ever been before. Although the people seem friendly and I didn’t feel threatened, I couldn’t help but feel a bit intimidated. Lots of shack-like buildings line the street, which Tekele tells us will be pulled down soon for an urban regeneration project. There is certainly a lot of building work being done – scaffolding is made from fragile looking bits of stick nailed together!

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